James Beattie article - good read

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Good to hear he spends a lot of time watching Saints now. Was a good lad (whenever I met him), and not the **** that alot of people made him out to be:

 

http://www.bleacherreport.com/articles/2353813-exclusive-james-beattie-on-the-secrets-of-southamptons-football-factory

 

Exclusive: James Beattie on the Secrets of Southampton's Football Factory

 

Perhaps it’s the sunshine. Or the fresh air. Whatever the cause (and with apologies to Portsmouth), the south coast of England has produced two clubs this season who are threatening to shake up the establishment.

 

Bournemouth are riding high in the Championship and Southampton have defied everyone to become the surprise package of the Premier League.

 

Last summer, the Saints sold Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Calum Chambers and Rickie Lambert for a combined total of £92 million, leaving most observers predicting that the Saints would be facing another relegation scrap.

 

But under Ronald Koeman, and with the latest crop of exciting young players making a big impression, Southampton remain in the hunt for a top-four finish and Champions League football.

 

Former striker James Beattie is one of those thrilled by the club’s unexpected rise.

 

I think the best thing that happened last summer was that the owner Katharina Liebherr gave Ronald all that money to go and reinvest. That’s a huge step. The club then recruited some fantastic, largely unknown, players because the manager knows the European market very, very well.

 

Recruitment is probably 90 per cent of your success in football, employing the right people and getting them to work in the same way, whether it be the manager, the coaching staff or the players of course. How the hell they got Alderweireld on loan I’ll never know. It takes time to spot a player like that. Outside the club, people were making assumptions, but talking to people inside Southampton, Koeman was always full of confidence and that dripped through to the squad.

 

Beattie himself made 235 appearances for Southampton, scoring 76 goals. He moved to Everton in January 2005 before rediscovering his goalscoring touch in the first of two spells at Sheffield United, but as we talk in a seaside restaurant near Bournemouth, it’s clear his heart still lies with the Saints.

 

“I’ve seen 10 of the last 15 games, home and away. I speak to a few of the lads in the dressing room and they say Koeman’s training is top drawer, he’s personable and gets his message across. To go to Old Trafford for example and play 3-5-2 was great.

 

"I thought it was really ballsy to have so much faith in himself and his team. The players in that tunnel must have thought ‘he really thinks we can do this, so let’s go out and do it.' They are punching above their weight and it’s a great thing to see.”

 

Beattie turns 37 later this year, but it was as a fresh-faced 20-year-old in July 1998 that he was forced to leave his hometown club Blackburn Rovers and head south as part of the deal that saw Kevin Davies move in the opposite direction.

 

It was a disappointment to leave Blackburn initially because I grew up in Blackburn and was a Blackburn fan. I was upset to begin with, but what came afterwards and the way my career developed at Southampton is something that dreams are made of and I owe a lot to Dave Jones.

 

I’d lived at home until that point so I had to grow up very quickly and become independent. I lived in the Hilton hotel for four months which is where I met David Howells who had just moved from Tottenham. We struck up an instant relationship and we remain good friends even now. I spent six-and-a-half years there and I look on those years very fondly.

 

It was probably at the right time in my life too…to live on the south coast, with the fantastic weather and all that. The club moved from The Dell to St Mary’s and it was a great time to be there, hoping that one day your performances would contribute to the progression of the club.

 

In 2003 under Gordon Strachan, Beattie scored 23 goals and helped Southampton to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League and a place in the FA Cup final.

 

“We overachieved basically because of the atmosphere that Gordon Strachan had created and the way the lads approached their profession. There were no real superstars in our team but sometimes as a team we were unbeatable."

 

Beattie’s 23-goal haul almost gave him the honour of being the Premier League’s top scorer in the 2002/03 campaign, but he chuckles as he tells the story.

 

“I was in the top three of the goalscorer chart pretty much all the way through that season and we played Man City away on the final day. It was their last ever game at Maine Road. I was on 23 goals, Thierry (Henry) was on 23 as well and Ruud (van Nistelrooy) was on 24.

 

"I was shooting from all over the place! I think we won 1-0 and spoilt the Man City party, but I remember shooting from, like, 50 yards and the lads were laughing at me. They knew what I was trying to do and they wanted me to get it as well, but the success of the team meant more."

 

Sadly for Beattie, he didn’t score that day, whilst Henry and van Nistelrooy both did, with the Dutchman taking the honour.

 

“I still speak to a lot of the lads from that 2003 side," says Beattie, "Jason Dodd, Franny Benali, Matt le Tissier, Ken Monkou, Claus Lundekvam…the way they embraced me as a young, unknown quantity from Blackburn was great. That was something I took on with me when I became an established player and I tried to look after the young lads."

 

Over the last 15 years, Southampton have certainly been blessed with some incredibly talented "young lads" coming up through the club’s highly regarded Academy. The list of graduates rolls off the tongue like a production line of teenage British talent. In May 2013, Andre Villas-Boas described the Southampton Academy as "a great school of development," as per the BBC, and he compared its nurturing approach to that of Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon.

 

So what does James Beattie think is the secret?

 

I think Southampton has always been a family-oriented club and any youngsters who were thought to be really impressive were always shown around the training ground and introduced to the senior players. It was the club saying to them ‘this is where you want to be in a few years’.

 

We always heard whispers about these kids. I remember Gareth Bale being shown around and towards the end of my time it was Theo Walcott, and after I’d left it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. We were introduced to Gareth and he was only a baby y’know? They had really high hopes for him even at the age of 14 and he was earmarked for stardom even at that point.

 

Theo started playing for the reserves in the September of 2004 before I left in January 2005, so I trained alongside him occasionally. He went on to score some great goals and was only 16.

 

More recently, they’ve produced Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers…the list goes on. Even now, Matty Target, Nathaniel Clyne, James Ward-Prowse has just signed a new five-year deal.

 

Harrison Reid is a player I’ve seen a number of times this year and he’s really impressed me. He might be a small man in size, but certainly not in stature on the pitch. I saw him do one of the best jobs on Ross Barkley when Everton came to St. Marys.

 

You’ve also got a manager in Ronald Koeman who’s not afraid to use these lads. He’s got faith in them and he knows he can give them responsibility and they’ll do a good job. To be fair, all of the managers I played for at Southampton were conscious of the Academy because it was so well-respected. It’s about the people who drive it and lead it like Les Reed, the Technical Director.

 

Beattie is keen to stress that the success of Southampton’s Academy is the result of years of planning.

 

“The strategy was always in place. When I first went there in ’98 the club were trying to buy some land and now the training ground covers a phenomenal area," he said. "They’ve got fantastic new facilities. I went to watch an Under-21 match there a few weeks back. When I was training, we had two pitches and that was it. They must have 12 pitches down there now, immaculate, same dimensions as the pitch at St Mary’s so any player who graduates into the first team has no excuse during home matches.

 

"Nothing is left to chance. The other element is that the catchment area is so good…Hampshire, Sussex, up to Surrey… Wayne Bridge was a Winchester lad and we also had Chris Baird in our FA Cup final team who had come through the Academy. There was always a steady trickle of young players coming through and it was all about the recruitment. The scouts had obviously done a great job because quite a few of the lads were making the step up from the youth setup to the first-team squad. If a young lad had a choice between Chelsea or a club like Southampton, then it began to filter through that the lad was usually choosing Southampton because the overall prospects of making first-team football were better."

 

The days of Beattie playing first-team football have almost certainly now passed. Although he says he’s had playing contracts offered to him, James Beattie now considers himself a football manager and is eager to get another role, having left Accrington Stanley in September last year. In his first season as a manager, Beattie kept Accrington in League Two and attracted the attention of other Football League clubs.

 

I really enjoyed it. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t really pass up. I didn’t really envisage that I’d stop playing as early as I did and I do miss playing. But I’ve reinvented myself as a manager now and am waiting patiently for my next job, going to games and spending time at clubs.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I’ve spent a week at West Brom and Swansea to see how they work. David Moyes has invited me over to Real Sociedad and it’s nice to see a smile back on his face. I met Ronald de Boer at the weekend and his brother Frank is managing Ajax. They’ve invited me over for a week too so those trips will be interesting to see how they do it on the continent.

 

I want to learn all the time and develop my knowledge of the game and my own philosophy. I know I’m capable of getting a team to compete and that I can create the right spirit at a club, making sure that everybody is pulling in the same direction. I’m hungry for my next challenge.

[Singapore Saint]

Did he not marry a Southampton girl?

 

Do they have children?

[ericofarabia]

Beattie himself made 235 appearances for Southampton, scoring 76 goals. He moved to Everton in January 2005 before rediscovering his goalscoring touch in the first of two spells at Sheffield United, but as we talk in a seaside restaurant near Bournemouth, it’s clear his heart still lies with the Saints.

 

Revisiting the scene of Muffingate?

[simo]

Clyne

[ericofarabia]

Clyne

 

I think we can cut him some slack on that one .... Clyne is certainly good enough to have come from our academy

[DrZuess1979 the 2nd]

Saw him last weekend with his 2 nippers on Bournemouth beach.

Shook his hand, seemed quite happy to chat

(My kids started playing with his kids, so I didn't run up as a fanatic saints fan)

[BARCELONASAINT]

I think he has mellowed over the years and calmed down alot.....my experiences of him when he played for us are not good....he was a complete arrogant ****. Too much money when young and believed the hype about himself.

[Hamilton Saint]

Here, I added some paragraphs to make it easier to read.

 

 

Perhaps it’s the sunshine. Or the fresh air. Whatever the cause (and with apologies to Portsmouth), the south coast of England has produced two clubs this season who are threatening to shake up the establishment. Bournemouth are riding high in the Championship and Southampton have defied everyone to become the surprise package of the Premier League.

 

Last summer, the Saints sold Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Calum Chambers and Rickie Lambert for a combined total of £92 million, leaving most observers predicting that the Saints would be facing another relegation scrap. But under Ronald Koeman, and with the latest crop of exciting young players making a big impression, Southampton remain in the hunt for a top-four finish and Champions League football.

 

Former striker James Beattie is one of those thrilled by the club’s unexpected rise.

 

"I think the best thing that happened last summer was that the owner Katharina Liebherr gave Ronald all that money to go and reinvest. That’s a huge step. The club then recruited some fantastic, largely unknown, players because the manager knows the European market very, very well. Recruitment is probably 90 per cent of your success in football, employing the right people and getting them to work in the same way, whether it be the manager, the coaching staff or the players of course. How the hell they got Alderweireld on loan I’ll never know. It takes time to spot a player like that. Outside the club, people were making assumptions, but talking to people inside Southampton, Koeman was always full of confidence and that dripped through to the squad."

 

Beattie himself made 235 appearances for Southampton, scoring 76 goals. He moved to Everton in January 2005 before rediscovering his goalscoring touch in the first of two spells at Sheffield United, but as we talk in a seaside restaurant near Bournemouth, it’s clear his heart still lies with the Saints.

 

“I’ve seen 10 of the last 15 games, home and away. I speak to a few of the lads in the dressing room and they say Koeman’s training is top drawer, he’s personable and gets his message across. To go to Old Trafford for example and play 3-5-2 was great. I thought it was really ballsy to have so much faith in himself and his team. The players in that tunnel must have thought ‘he really thinks we can do this, so let’s go out and do it.' They are punching above their weight and it’s a great thing to see.”

 

Beattie turns 37 later this year, but it was as a fresh-faced 20-year-old in July 1998 that he was forced to leave his hometown club Blackburn Rovers and head south as part of the deal that saw Kevin Davies move in the opposite direction.

 

"It was a disappointment to leave Blackburn initially because I grew up in Blackburn and was a Blackburn fan. I was upset to begin with, but what came afterwards and the way my career developed at Southampton is something that dreams are made of and I owe a lot to Dave Jones. I’d lived at home until that point so I had to grow up very quickly and become independent. I lived in the Hilton hotel for four months which is where I met David Howells who had just moved from Tottenham. We struck up an instant relationship and we remain good friends even now. I spent six-and-a-half years there and I look on those years very fondly.

 

"It was probably at the right time in my life too…to live on the south coast, with the fantastic weather and all that. The club moved from The Dell to St Mary’s and it was a great time to be there, hoping that one day your performances would contribute to the progression of the club."

 

In 2003 under Gordon Strachan, Beattie scored 23 goals and helped Southampton to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League and a place in the FA Cup final.

 

“We overachieved basically because of the atmosphere that Gordon Strachan had created and the way the lads approached their profession. There were no real superstars in our team but sometimes as a team we were unbeatable."

 

Beattie’s 23-goal haul almost gave him the honour of being the Premier League’s top scorer in the 2002/03 campaign, but he chuckles as he tells the story.

 

“I was in the top three of the goalscorer chart pretty much all the way through that season and we played Man City away on the final day. It was their last ever game at Maine Road. I was on 23 goals, Thierry (Henry) was on 23 as well and Ruud (van Nistelrooy) was on 24. I was shooting from all over the place! I think we won 1-0 and spoilt the Man City party, but I remember shooting from, like, 50 yards and the lads were laughing at me. They knew what I was trying to do and they wanted me to get it as well, but the success of the team meant more."

 

Sadly for Beattie, he didn’t score that day, whilst Henry and van Nistelrooy both did, with the Dutchman taking the honour.

 

“I still speak to a lot of the lads from that 2003 side," says Beattie, "Jason Dodd, Franny Benali, Matt le Tissier, Ken Monkou, Claus Lundekvam … the way they embraced me as a young, unknown quantity from Blackburn was great. That was something I took on with me when I became an established player and I tried to look after the young lads."

 

Over the last 15 years, Southampton have certainly been blessed with some incredibly talented "young lads" coming up through the club’s highly regarded Academy. The list of graduates rolls off the tongue like a production line of teenage British talent. In May 2013, Andre Villas-Boas described the Southampton Academy as "a great school of development," as per the BBC, and he compared its nurturing approach to that of Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon.

 

So what does James Beattie think is the secret?

 

"I think Southampton has always been a family-oriented club and any youngsters who were thought to be really impressive were always shown around the training ground and introduced to the senior players. It was the club saying to them ‘this is where you want to be in a few years’. We always heard whispers about these kids. I remember Gareth Bale being shown around and towards the end of my time it was Theo Walcott, and after I’d left it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. We were introduced to Gareth and he was only a baby y’know? They had really high hopes for him even at the age of 14 and he was earmarked for stardom even at that point. Theo started playing for the reserves in the September of 2004 before I left in January 2005, so I trained alongside him occasionally. He went on to score some great goals and was only 16.

 

"More recently, they’ve produced Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers…the list goes on. Even now, Matty Target, Nathaniel Clyne, James Ward-Prowse has just signed a new five-year deal. Harrison Reid is a player I’ve seen a number of times this year and he’s really impressed me. He might be a small man in size, but certainly not in stature on the pitch. I saw him do one of the best jobs on Ross Barkley when Everton came to St. Marys.

 

"You’ve also got a manager in Ronald Koeman who’s not afraid to use these lads. He’s got faith in them and he knows he can give them responsibility and they’ll do a good job. To be fair, all of the managers I played for at Southampton were conscious of the Academy because it was so well-respected. It’s about the people who drive it and lead it like Les Reed, the Technical Director."

 

Beattie is keen to stress that the success of Southampton’s Academy is the result of years of planning.

 

“The strategy was always in place. When I first went there in ’98 the club were trying to buy some land and now the training ground covers a phenomenal area," he said. "They’ve got fantastic new facilities. I went to watch an Under-21 match there a few weeks back. When I was training, we had two pitches and that was it. They must have 12 pitches down there now, immaculate, same dimensions as the pitch at St Mary’s so any player who graduates into the first team has no excuse during home matches. Nothing is left to chance. The other element is that the catchment area is so good…Hampshire, Sussex, up to Surrey… Wayne Bridge was a Winchester lad and we also had Chris Baird in our FA Cup final team who had come through the Academy. There was always a steady trickle of young players coming through and it was all about the recruitment. The scouts had obviously done a great job because quite a few of the lads were making the step up from the youth setup to the first-team squad. If a young lad had a choice between Chelsea or a club like Southampton, then it began to filter through that the lad was usually choosing Southampton because the overall prospects of making first-team football were better."

 

The days of Beattie playing first-team football have almost certainly now passed. Although he says he’s had playing contracts offered to him, James Beattie now considers himself a football manager and is eager to get another role, having left Accrington Stanley in September last year. In his first season as a manager, Beattie kept Accrington in League Two and attracted the attention of other Football League clubs.

 

"I really enjoyed it. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t really pass up. I didn’t really envisage that I’d stop playing as early as I did and I do miss playing. But I’ve reinvented myself as a manager now and am waiting patiently for my next job, going to games and spending time at clubs."

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I think he has mellowed over the years and calmed down alot.....my experiences of him when he played for us are not good....he was a complete arrogant ****. Too much money when young and believed the hype about himself.

 

See my experience was completely the opposite, but maybe that was because when I went out with him I was in the group ( I was a mate of a golfer who know him well). He was a really nice guy, very generous, not up himself at all. Wayne Bridge on the other hand...

[Smirking_Saint]

I think he has mellowed over the years and calmed down alot.....my experiences of him when he played for us are not good....he was a complete arrogant ****. Too much money when young and believed the hype about himself.

 

This

[saintchris23]

See my experience was completely the opposite, but maybe that was because when I went out with him I was in the group ( I was a mate of a golfer who know him well). He was a really nice guy, very generous, not up himself at all. Wayne Bridge on the other hand...

 

Whereas Wayne Bridge has always been a decent guy when I've met him, either playing for us, Chelsea, England, or beside a pool whilst on holiday in Marbella, always had time to chat, sign autographs or have a beer. The same can be said for Joe Cole who's incredibly down to earth.

 

I guess it's like any human, catch us in the wrong mood and we can be perceived as anything but the person we actually are.

[Saint-Armstrong]

I think he has mellowed over the years and calmed down alot.....my experiences of him when he played for us are not good....he was a complete arrogant ****. Too much money when young and believed the hype about himself.

 

Yep, definitely. Heard from someone close to Accrington the other week (so used to work with James frequently) that at Saints he asked Paul Sturrock if he wanted his autograph (true?)

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Yep, definitely. Heard from someone close to Accrington the other week (so used to work with James frequently) that at Saints he asked Paul Sturrock if he wanted his autograph (true?)

 

Why would he tell that story to someone at Accrington? Even if he did that at the time he'd know now it is a stupid thing to do.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Whereas Wayne Bridge has always been a decent guy when I've met him, either playing for us, Chelsea, England, or beside a pool whilst on holiday in Marbella, always had time to chat, sign autographs or have a beer. The same can be said for Joe Cole who's incredibly down to earth.

 

I guess it's like any human, catch us in the wrong mood and we can be perceived as anything but the person we actually are.

 

Yeah, possibly so. I just remember a number of people on here in the past making judgements of him by not actually meeting him properly and blatantly going up to him, drunk in Jacks and expecting him to be their best mate.

[Saint-Armstrong]

Why would he tell that story to someone at Accrington? Even if he did that at the time he'd know now it is a stupid thing to do.

 

I don't know, I don't work for Accrington Stanley.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I don't know, I don't work for Accrington Stanley.

 

Exactly, I just don't think he would. I think it's something that somebody has heard, it just so happens he works for Accrington.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I don't know, I don't work for Accrington Stanley.

 

Duplicate

[Saint-Armstrong]

Exactly, I just don't think he would. I think it's something that somebody has heard, it just so happens he works for Accrington.

 

Possible, I suppose.

[Patrick Bateman]

Yep, definitely. Heard from someone close to Accrington the other week (so used to work with James frequently) that at Saints he asked Paul Sturrock if he wanted his autograph (true?)

 

This news is around 10 years old, if not more. I remember it the first time round and a quick internet search reveals;

 

"12-05-2005, 11:41 AM

I'd not had that much against Southampton until recent years.

 

The arrogance with which the club, fans and players dismissed Paul Sturrock - a highly rated manager who had achieved a lot with no money in the lower leagues - made me realise that the club thought they were such much more than they actually are. James Beattie offering Sturrock his autograph on arrival? What a tosser."

Edited 20 February, 2015 by Patrick Bateman

[Saint-Armstrong]

This news is around 10 years old, if not more. I remember it the first time round and a quick internet search reveals;

 

"

12-05-2005, 11:41 AM

I'd not had that much against Southampton until recent years.

 

The arrogance with which the club, fans and players dismissed Paul Sturrock - a highly rated manager who had achieved a lot with no money in the lower leagues - made me realise that the club thought they were such much more than they actually are. James Beattie offering Sturrock his autograph on arrival? What a tosser"

 

I can't say I remember hearing the story. Who posted the above, out of interest - do we know?

[Patrick Bateman]

I can't say I remember hearing the story. Who posted the above, out of interest - do we know?

 

Was on a Palace forum, but covered elsewhere and done to death on the old SaintsForever sites - which I can't find.

[hypochondriac]

My views on beattie are well known. I had photographic proof that he is an arse. Sadly not anymore.